Sports and Betting: the Impact of Uncertainty on Football Matches Attendance

This study is to find the relationship between uncertainty and attendance of football matches and the factors influencing it. The study is based on the data in 1072 the Russian Football Premier League matches, which were taken during the period from 2010 to 2014. After estimating the regression model, it was found that 9 out of 20 of the explanatory variables included in the model, were significant. Study the total sample of observations showed that with increasing the probability of winning for the home team, attendance will increase. By splitting the total sample of observations on 4 models at the team level, there were varying dependencies between the uncertainty of the outcome of an event and the attendance of the games. The main result is that using a non-linear model is included in the probability of winning the home team and its square, were found relationships between the uncertainty of the outcome of the match and attendance. In the study of matches between strong teams, the results showed that the relationship is quadratic and positive, as well as in the study of games between strong home teams and weak guest teams. The results of the study of games between weak teams showed that the relationship between uncertainty of outcome and attendance of football matches is quadratic and negative .